According to Ben Robinson, author of "Beer Hacks: 100 Tips, Tricks and Projects" (Workman, $16.95), there are a number of other important things to know about beer.

For instance, the author, who also serves as editor-in-chief of the Observer, explains in the book how an empty beer bottle can be transformed into a soap dispenser or a Tiki torch. He also discovered that brew is a good household cleaner and that a French press was the perfect way to infuse new flavors into beer.

His book is categorized into 14 chapters, including "Ingenious Methods for Opening Beers When You Don't have a Bottle Opener," "How to Store Your Beer Smartly" and "Crucial Beer Life Hacks."

A couple of those crucial hacks include how and where one can safely rest a beer when sipping in the shower, along with his thought that glass beer bottles are never a good idea around water.

"... I mean things are wet and soapy, and you're such a shower beer novice that you're researching how to drink one in a book," he writes.

NEWSLETTERS

Get the Sneak Peek newsletter delivered to your inbox

We're sorry, but something went wrong

A weekly email of entertainment news and cool things to do in Knoxville.

For using as a household cleaner, he writes, "... for every single item that beer temporarily ruined, there's something else that's just sitting there, begging for beer to fix it."

The "Beer Hacks" book comes with its own bottle opener.(Photo: Workman)

His tips include using beer to shine your kitchen pots while employing the "some for the pot, some for me" mindset and that beer and elbow grease can clean coffee stains from carpet.

The book references particular drinking glasses best used in delivering ultimate flavor such as a brandy snifter for a Scotch ale or a large red wine glass for any type of beer.

"Pouring your beer into any glass will lead to a better drinking experience than out of the can or bottle (as it helps release carbonation trapped in the liquid)," he writes.

Buy Photo

Beer can be used to make fruit fly traps, according to the new book "Beer Hacks: 100 Tips, Tricks and Projects" by Ben Robinson.(Photo: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel)

The more daunting hacks in the book are in the DIY category, where illustrations direct how to cut an empty beer bottle into a drinking glass and/or shot glass by wrapping acetate-soaked yarn around a glass beer bottle and lighting the yarn on fire, which heats the glass until it breaks when placed in ice water.

There's also info on how to store beer to prevent "skunking," and a chapter on terminology so the beer aficionado will readily know what "bomber," "whale" and "drain pour" mean in the world of ale.